Here's something that might surprise folks, given the focus of my blog. I'm not really a kid person.
I have kids, and I think they're totally awesome young women; I enjoy their company, I look forward to weekends and summer vacations because they'll be around more. They're just cool people.
But, in general, I'm not child-oriented. I don't avoid kid-focused activity but I don't seek it out either. Because, on the whole, I'm just not that fond of children. (I'm really not a big baby fan. Never got that "baby hunger" people talk about--and I was 32 when my oldest was born, so it's likely that if I was going to get it, I would have by then. I have no desire to cuddle (or have much of anything to do with) other people's babies.)
Don't get me wrong--I loved my babies when they were babies. I've loved them, loved spending time with them, at every age they've been. But I find that as soon as my own kids pass a certain age, I rapidly lose tolerance for other kids who are still at that age or below. In general I prefer the company of adults.
So what does all this have to do with comic books (apart from the fact that ours won't arrive until next week and I have nothing much else to talk about)?
Just this, I guess. Kids don't buy comics. My kids, who love comics, probably wouldn't buy them if they had to spend their own meager allowance on them. The folks who buy kid-focused comics, on the whole, are parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, older sisters and brothers. Adults with some connection to kids. That narrows the purchasing pool even further, because the only folks who buy comics for kids are adults who like comics, who know kids who also like comics.
When I was a kid (back when we had to walk three miles in a blizzard, uphill, both ways, to get to the corner store to get our comics), if I went comic shopping with three dollars in my pocket, I might come home with six or eight titles. Now that buys one. Granted that it's a better quality product. But when folks say that comics are no longer for children, they're pretty much right.
Right now, I'm concerned with the need for kid-friendly comics. Because I have kids who are young enough that that's a concern. They like the Marvel Adventures line (hey, who doesn't?). The eight-year-old likes Scooby Doo. They used to like DC's kid-oriented Teen Titans Go and Justice League Unlimited, but the twelve-year-old has since moved on to the regular Titans book (presumably that's as DC likes it :)) and never did like the Justice League Unlimited cartoon as much as she liked the earlier version.
They also read quite a few of the books I get, but I do make a point of getting things that are specifically aimed at their age group as well.
And when I no longer have kids in that age group, I will no longer be part of the market for these books. (Well, maybe Marvel Adventures Avengers. That book is wicked funny!) Because, once my kids are grown, I know I'll be unlikely to seek out kid-focused products. Hopefully someone else will be by then.
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